Shoichi Kusanagi
|base = 草薙 翔一 |furigana = くさなぎ しょういち |color = #6411e0 |writecolor = white |romaji = Kusanagi Shōichi |gender = Male |relatives = Unnamed younger brotherMentioned in "Yu-Gi-Oh! LABO - Episode 5"Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 1:"My Name is Playmaker" |species = Human |anime debut = Episode 1 |seiyū japanese = Subaru Kimura|occupation = Hacker Hotdog stand ownerhttps://dueldeegao.wordpress.com/2017/05/02/kusanagi-and-akiras-bios/}} Shoichi Kusanagi ( , Kusanagi Shōichi) is a character appearing in Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS. He works as a hot-dog vendor in the city. However, that is merely a cover, as he is actually a skilled hacker who supports "Playmaker" in Dueling.https://dueldeegao.wordpress.com/2017/05/02/kusanagi-and-akiras-bios/ Operating out of a food truck called Café Nagi, which doubles as his and Yusaku's base of operations, Shoichi is an ally of Yusaku Fujiki in his fight against the Knights of Hanoi, with intergral knowledge of the Link VRAINS.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 1:"My Name is Playmaker" Personality Soichi is a rather friendly individual. He's shown to be sympathetic towards Yusaku and hopes he can one day enjoy Dueling again. He also regrets dragging him into the fight against the Knights of Hanoi. Unlike Yusaku, Soichi doesn't seem to actively show hatred towards Hanoi.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 1:"My Name is Playmaker" Abilities Being the owner of a food truck, Soichi is a capable cook; he was seen cooking hotdogs. Like Yusaku, he's a talented hacker. He was able to get information about SOL Technologies's activities and helped Yusaku capture Ai in the latter's Duel Disk.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 1:"My Name is Playmaker" History Past For not yet known how long, Shoich has been closely acquainted with Yusaku, a fellow hacker. Yusaku mentioned The Knights of Hanoi stole his past and Shoich's younger brother. He shortly recollected at one point that he most likely surfed the winds in Link VRAINS before they disappeared, leading Yusaku to decide to fight against the Knights of Hanoi.Yu-Gi-Oh! LABO - Episode 5https://ygorganization.com/niceroleniceactorgo/[[Episode 1|Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 1:"My Name is Playmaker"]] Present One day, in late afternoon, he and Yusaku discussed the Charisma Duelists and the Data Storm. He explained that the Data Storm was rumoured to be a wind that once blew inside Link VRAINS, which Duelists used to conduct a kind of Duel called "Speed Duel", but that wind had disappeared. Soichi hoped Yusaku can one day enjoy Dueling again and apologized to involve him. But Yusaku affirmed that he did this of his free will and he will get revenge on those who stole his past and Shoich's younger brother. Shortly after, they discussed how both SOL Technologies and their enemies, the Knights of Hanoi, were chasing after an AI program in Link VRAINS with him. Upon learning that SOL Technology had scheduled a full scan of Link VRAINS that evening to try and find the AI, they quickly started working on a trap to catch the AI themselves. Although Yusaku successfully captured a reluctant Ai in his Duel Disk, one of the Knights of Hanoi threatened to destroy Link VRAINS. .]] After that Playmaker challenged the Knight of Hanoi, he was surprised when Playmaker rode the Data Storm.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 1:"My Name is Playmaker" A student asked what the Duel between Playmaker and The Knight of Hanoi was. He answered him that this was called an "Speed Duel". He was surprised that Yusaku used the Cyberse type. He became worried when Yusaku fell from his D-Board. After that Blue Angel saved Yusaku, he continued to watch the Speed Duel and was worried when Playmaker is sucked into a tornado within the Data StormYu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 2:"Catch the Wind! Storm Access" and was relieved when Yusaku won the Duel.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 3:"First Contact" Shoichi and Yusaku spent the next few days trying to figure out Ignis' programming, but Shoichi struggled to understand the complicated algorithms that Ignis was made out of. He then suggested to come up with a name for the A.I., to which Yusaku decided to name it "ai", a pun on "eye". Trying to scan footage from "ai's" memories caused the Knights of Hanoi's leader to track them down, however Shoichi shut down Café Nagi's power before they were found.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 3:"First Contact" The next day Shoichi gave Yusaku the "Decode Talker" card that had finished materializing before he went to LINk VRAINS to fight a supposed Knight of Hanoi that appeared.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 4:"Charisma Duelist: Go Onizuka" When the Knight turned out to be Go Onizuka, a program that prevents Playmaker from logging out was activated by SOL Technology. Shoichi worked on an escape route for Yusaku, but Yusaku refused to use it. After the Duel ended, Shoichi scolded Yusaku for not using the escape route, but also suggested that they could recruit Go for their fight against Hanoi.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 5:"The Bell Rings on the Count of Three" discover that the real identity of "Blue Angel".]] Shoichi discovered that the real identity of the famous idol "Blue Angel" is Aoi Zaizen, a classmate of Yusaku. He thought about Yusaku meeting Aoi so they could get closer to Akira Zaizen in order to get more information about SOL Technology regarding his brother and Yusaku's memories, however he also doubted the plan would work because of Yusaku's poor social skills. A few days later, he was shocked when Playmaker and Blue Angel began a Duel before getting interrupted by a customer.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 6:"Idol! Blue Angel" After the Duel concluded and Aoi was put in a coma, Shoichi hacked into the hospital's records to find out about Aoi's condition. Ignis protested that hacking into the hospital was a crime, to which Shoichi casually said that hacking already was a crime in the first place. Ignis explained that Aoi had been infected by a virus from Hanoi's card and the only ones with the anti-virus were Hanoi themselves. "Blue Angel" appeared claiming that she wanted a rematch against Playmaker. Shoichi knew right away that she was an impostor and instructed Yusaku to ignore her because it was clearly a trap, but Yusaku went into LINK VRAINS anyways because he felt it was his responsibility to save Aoi.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 8:"The One Who Commands the Wind" 's cameras to watch Playmarker and Revolver's Speed Duel.]] Revolver's appearance and subsequent manipulation of LINK VRAINS caused Shoichi's cameras to go offline, though he was briefly able to use SOL's cameras and later Ghost Girl's. He was displeased when Ghost Girl's camera stopped recording, making him unable to watch anything inside LINK VRAINS.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 10:"Impact! Cyberse Extermination" To watch the Duel, Shoichi used the bugs in the Knights of Hanoi's program that created the Data Storm to open a path for Ghost Girl to enter the Data Storm; she had her cameras record the Duel between Playmaker and Revolver, allowing Shoichi to watch it.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 11:"Roar of the Magazine Varreload" 's full body.]] Shoichi was glad that Playmaker won against Revolver and carried him after he logged out since the former took a lot of strain during his Duel. Since Yusaku was interested what became of Aoi, Shoichi went to show she was recovering. Yusaku fell asleep and Ai commented how lazy he was, but Shoichi claimed heroes needed to rest. Ai started bragging, so Shoichi went to analyze what kind of program he ate from Revolver. Realizing Shoichi would look into his "private parts", Ai called him a pervert and refused to say anything. Once Yusaku woke up, Shoichi sensed he was thinking what Revolver told about Ai. Since they did not know how to prove if Ai was actually alive, Ai claimed it, indeed, was alive. Ai used the program he obtained from Revolver to recover his body back. However, Ai's size didn't impress Yusaku and Shoichi, who tried to analyze if Ai regained some of his memories, even if Ai wanted them to show emotion how he regained his body.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 12:"Impregnable Defending Dragon Firewall" .]] A few days later Emma Bessho ran into Café Nagi, but neither she nor Shoichi recognized the other as "Ghost Girl" or "Playmaker's assistant". Emma ordered a coffee and two chilli dogs and mentioned she was interested in Dueling Playmaker, causing Shoichi to wonder what kind of Duelist she is. Yusaku noted that Shoichi looked exhausted, to which Shoichi said that he was tired from spening all night deleting "Playmaker" files and videos that people constantly post on the network. Yusaku offered to help him with the clean up, and in doing so he inadvertently deleted a big scoop that would've revealed everything Playmaker and Shoichi know involving Ai and the Knights of Hanoi.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 13:"Record of the Fierce Battle" and Ai an encrypted message from Ghost Girl.]] During the night, Shoichi called Yusaku to come to his food truck and showed him an encrypted message on an internet forum, sent to him from Ghost Girl. Shoichi explained he had created a program to navigate her to enter the Data Storm during the Duel with Revolver. The two read how she demanded a Duel from Playmaker, with Ai as wager. Yusaku accepted, stating that she offered a backdoor to SOL Technologies' data bank, and Shoichi confirmed that fact, showing she did send a bit of the data as proof. Yusaku asked of Shoichi to reply that Playmaker would accept her challenge. Ghost Girl soon entered LINK VRAINS, and Yusaku went to do the same. Shoichi wondered if Yusaku would really go and Duel her, since she could've set another trap. Yusaku claimed he had to uncover the truth behind the incident, hoped in the data bank there was some information about Knights of Hanoi, and sensed some determination in Ghost Girl, despite her weaknesses. Shoichi watched as Ghost Girl and Playmaker confronted each other, and wished of the latter to acquire the backdoor. Seeing how well Ghost Girl made her moves, Shoichi wished that Playmaker would be careful of her.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 14:"Ghost Girl's Invitation" While watching the Duel, Shoichi was baffled how complex the Duel was, being unable to predict the outcome. After Playmaker won and obtained the program, Shoichi went to analyze it. He believed he could crack the code, and noticed Yusaku was sleeping once more.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 15:"The Altergeists Lurking in the Darkness" Shoichi showed his analysis of Ghost Girl's program to Yusaku: the backdoor entrance to the SOL Technologies' mother computer, whose schematics looked like a maze. Shoichi and Yusaku were nevertheless impressed by Ghost Girl, who managed to hack and find this. Shoichi promised to be ready when the school was over, and Yusaku would be able to infiltrate the network the following night. On that night, Shoichi showed the location of the data bank, warning that the path to it was filled with traps. However, he did make countermeasures against them, and Yusaku praised him for such speed. After Yusaku went into the LINK VRAINS, Shoichi programmed an artificial device for Playmaker to hold onto to avoid traps, with a rope to prevent him from being detected, and gave directions to Playmaker where to go to. As security traps were set to stop Playmaker, Shoichi programmed a "Kuriball" as a decoy. After Playmaker passed Area A, Shoichi saw there was a Data Storm. He wanted to give up, due to all the danger, but thought the Data Storm wouldn't be as harmful if Playmaker continued on.Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS episode 16:"Infiltration - SOL Digital Fortress" References }} Navigation Category:Characters Category:Male Category:Hacker